Research on the mechanical performance of welded haunch joints with a box-strengthened joint region in the h-shaped column

Abstract

The welded haunch was commonly used on the repair and rehabilitation of the joint connection in engineering projects. However, it commonly needs to increase the joint region’s thickness because of the increased cross-sectional height of the beam-end due to adding a welded haunch. In the seismic design of steel moment frames, when the thickness of the joint region cannot meet the codes, traditional reinforcement measures such as thickening the column web were usually adopted. Traditional measures have limitations, such as construction complications and concentrations of weld stress. A new method called the box-strengthen reinforcement of the joint region was proposed. This method could form a box-section within a certain height range of the joint region. Four groups of models in two different reinforcement methods were built and analyzed to study the basic mechanical performance using the finite element software ABAQUS. The results show that box-strengthen reinforcement can significantly improve the shear behavior of connection joints and decrease shear stress in the joint region without depressing the bearing capacity.